Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence

The $1 million Aspen Prize – awarded every two years – recognizes excellent community colleges that achieve high and improving levels of student success in several areas, including teaching and learning; certificate and degree completion; transfer and bachelor’s attainment; workforce success; and college and program access. Prize winners and finalists are selected based on three rounds of intensive data analysis and qualitative research by independent experts and selection committees. The effective practices and models of excellence uncovered during the Prize process are shared with the field through open-access assessment tools and publications, conference presentations, and an extensive set of professional development programs, including Aspen presidential fellowships and Aspen’s state and system partnerships.  The Prize is supported by Ascendium, the Joyce Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Join over 600 community colleges that have helped us improve our data collection. By granting Aspen access to your National Student Clearinghouse data, we can better identify colleges with strong outcomes. Simply sign the Adobe e-form and confirm your email address when prompted. Information provided through the permission agreement will remain confidential.

Background

The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program will launch the ninth cycle of the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence in October 2025. One major change: We’re updating our Round One Data Model to capture degree completion for part-time students, resolve data reporting differences for community colleges that award bachelor’s degrees, and measure rates of transfer and bachelor’s degree completion. These changes will allow us to better identify the community colleges delivering strong outcomes for all students as we determine eligibility for the Aspen Prize.

We are seeking permission from every community college nationally to gather comprehensive data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), and more than 600 of the country’s community colleges have granted us this permission. With these data, Aspen will be able to conduct additional analyses and expand the list of Aspen Prize-eligible community colleges to 200. Colleges can also benchmark their own student outcomes against other peer colleges across a range of student outcomes, including early momentum metrics, retention, completion, transfer, and bachelor’s completion rates.

Benefits to Signing On

• Increased eligibility. Using NSC data will enable Aspen to reduce the amount of time spent conducting data analysis work, allowing us to have time to process more applications. As a result, in 2025, we are increasing the number of Prize-eligible colleges from 150 to 200.
• Reduced data burden. About 200 community colleges are now federally classified as four-year institutions, and Aspen can only consider those colleges for the Aspen Prize if they grant permission for us to access comparable data from the National Student Clearinghouse.
• Enhanced research. NSC data will allow Aspen to identify more colleges that achieve strong results for part-time students as well as students who earn bachelor’s degrees at their community colleges or after university transfer. In turn, this will allow Aspen to investigate and share more practices with the field that are being used by colleges that achieve strong outcomes in these domains.
• Better benchmarking. By collecting NSC data, Aspen will be able to enhance its free benchmarking tool that allows colleges to compare their outcomes to others in the field, helping them identify strengths and areas for improvement.

FAQs

Questions?

Please contact Ben Barrett at ben.barrett@aspeninstitute.org with any questions or concerns.

Notification of 200 Colleges Under Consideration for Prize

Colleges under consideration for the 2027 Aspen Prize will be notified in the fall of 2025. 

Southwest Wisconsin Technical College has been named the winner of the 2025 Aspen Prize! In addition, we recognize two finalists with distinction—San Jacinto College and South Puget Sound Community College—and one Rising Star, Wallace State Community College-Hanceville. All 10 finalists showcase the transformative power of community colleges in driving student success and advancing social mobility across the country.

The 2025 Aspen Prize cycle began in October 2023 when the Aspen Institute invited 150 community colleges to apply, based on data showing strong and improving student outcomes in key areas such as retention, completion, and transfer. Read more about the data model and see the list of 150 eligible colleges below.

Winner / $700,000 Award
Southwest Wisconsin Technical College (WI)
Driven by a mission to ensure every student achieves success, Southwest Tech has not only boosted graduation rates but also redesigned programs to equip graduates with the skills needed for high-demand, good-paying jobs in the region, ensuring long-term career success.

Finalists with Distinction / $100,000 Awards
San Jacinto College (TX)
Driven by a commitment to industry collaboration, San Jacinto has redefined employer partnerships, aligning curriculum with workforce needs and securing sustained investments in state-of-the-art facilities and programs in maritime tech, healthcare, and petrochemical processing.

South Puget Sound Community College (WA)
Guided by a commitment to meeting local workforce needs, SPSCC expanded clinical placements to graduate more nurses and improved workforce programs by shortening duration and advocating for higher wages.

Rising Star / $100,000 Award
Wallace State Community College-Hanceville (AL)
Consistently graduating well-prepared students for in-demand jobs in welding, healthcare, manufacturing, and trucking, Wallace State has inspired employer investments, ensuring students from Appalachian communities gain the equipment and work-based experiences needed for success in a growing job market.

To award the Aspen Prize, the College Excellence Program engages in a rigorous two-year-long process, beginning with an assessment of student outcomes at over 1,000 U.S. community colleges and inviting 150 to apply for Prize consideration. From the applicant pool, a selection committee chooses 20 to 25 semifinalists and then 10 finalists, from which a prominent Prize Jury selects the winner. Throughout the process, Aspen and higher education experts analyze a range of quantitative data, evaluate detailed applications from colleges, and interview a wide range of stakeholders at colleges.